Reliability of Amtrak Locomotives

[JNaismith]

I see that 4(13) is over 8 hrs late and had to rent a BNSF engine to replace a unit that failed at Trinidad, CO. Are there any reliable statistics on the failure rate of the various locomotives in use by Amtrak? Also what would it cost to rent a locomotive from one of the freight lines in instances such as above?

 

[Silver Star rider]

Any locomotive may fail. There is a the famous story about the UP Challenger answering the call to help a train with disabled diesel engines. I also feel this is true. When the Silver trains heading south of Washington Union Station, when they switch from electric to diesel motive power, they use two diesels because if one fails, the other is capable of pulling the consist, not clogging up CSX (?) tracks. I think I heard this is a requirement to operate on the freight RR tracks.

Bruce-SSR

 

[George Harris]

Any locomotive may fail. There is a the famous story about the UP Challenger answering the call to help a train with disabled diesel engines. I also feel this is true. When the Silver trains heading south of Washington Union Station, when they switch from electric to diesel motive power, they use two diesels because if one fails, the other is capable of pulling the consist, not clogging up CSX (?) tracks. I think I heard this is a requirement to operate on the freight RR tracks.

The use of two engines on the Silver trains also has to do with acceleration. A 10,000 ton freight may have four six axle diesels and a 1,000 ton passenger train have two four axle diesels, but that difference in ratio (1,667 tons per powered axle versus 250 tons per powered axle) is because the acceleration rate of the freight train is seldom of concern, where that of the passenger train has a lot to do with its ability to keep schedule.

The San Joaquin and Capital Corridor trains in California all operate with one engine.

If your maintenance program is so bad that you run a spare engine solely to recover from on-line failure things are really wrong with the picture.

 

[battalion51]

When the Silver trains heading south of Washington Union Station, when they switch from electric to diesel motive power, they use two diesels because if one fails, the other is capable of pulling the consist, not clogging up CSX (?) tracks. I think I heard this is a requirement to operate on the freight RR tracks.

The Palmetto, Regionals, and Carolinian all operating with one unit would seem to discredit this theory. The Star does tackle some decent size hills during its run between Raleigh and Savannah, so I'm sure that's a factor there.

 

[Paulus]

The San Joaquin and Capital Corridor trains in California all operate with one engine.

If your maintenance program is so bad that you run a spare engine solely to recover from on-line failure things are really wrong with the picture.

Surfliner also operates with only one engine and those are averaging about three million miles too as I recall (with 10,000 miles per equipment related service interruption). Per FRA, in Q2 FY14 the long distance trains averaged one equipment related service interruption per 10,700 train miles (ranging from 1 per 80,000 with the Auto Train to 1 per 5,300 on the California Zephyr). The Hiawatha takes the overall title for unreliability though with 1 per 1,400 train miles (probably winter and Horizon coaches).

For comparison, according to "The Intercity Story: 1964-2012" miles per technical incident MAA 2011/2012 ranged from 38,273 (CrossCountry Class 220 Voyager) to 5,490 (Chiltern Trains Class 67 + Mk 3 sets). Not necessarily comparable numbers of course.

 

[Thirdrail7]

I see that 4(13) is over 8 hrs late and had to rent a BNSF engine to replace a unit that failed at Trinidad, CO. Are there any reliable statistics on the failure rate of the various locomotives in use by Amtrak? Also what would it cost to rent a locomotive from one of the freight lines in instances such as above?

Amtrak does keep track of the failure rate, but I'm not sure if the information is public. It may be buried in the yearly plans under mechanical.

 

[Paulus]

I see that 4(13) is over 8 hrs late and had to rent a BNSF engine to replace a unit that failed at Trinidad, CO. Are there any reliable statistics on the failure rate of the various locomotives in use by Amtrak? Also what would it cost to rent a locomotive from one of the freight lines in instances such as above?

Amtrak does keep track of the failure rate, but I'm not sure if the information is public. It may be buried in the yearly plans under mechanical.

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